PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD WHAT HE BECAME
Willie Lamont
John 1: 14; 2 Corinthians 8: 9; Revelation 1: 17,18
It will be obvious, I think, that what is in mind today is to speak of the Lord Jesus as the One who became flesh, who became poor and who became dead. I am sure it touches every one of us that One so great as Himself is described in this gospel as "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". When we are speaking about the Lord Jesus we should always remember, never in any degree forget, that He is God as to His Person. That is the background to the glad tidings. It has often been said that only God could make God known, and yet He became flesh, He became poor, He became dead. One so great! It is very affecting. I trust all our souls, all our he-arts, are touched to the depths as we contemplate such a One and the greatness of His stoop.
In chapter 8 of John's gospel, that poor woman was in His presence along with those self-righteous Pharisees, and He stooped and wrote on the ground; then he stooped again and wrote on the ground. These two stoops speak to us of the fact that He came into manhood - that was the first stoop: "and the Word became flesh" - He took that condition. The second was that He stooped right into death. One who as to His Person is God, I repeat, became flesh, became poor and became dead.
First we must understand that the Word became flesh. What a change! John tells us that He came into this scene among the Jews who were recognised outwardly as His own. "He came to his own, and his own received him not", John 1: 11. Think of persons refusing One who as to His Person was God, the awfulness of it, the terribleness of the heart of man away from God, God appearing, appearing in love. Paul in his epistle to Titus tells us that: the "love to man of our Saviour God appeared" (chap 3: 4) - the appearing of the love of God in all its fulness in the Person of Jesus, yet He came to His own, the full presentation of the love of God, and "his own received him not". Have you received the Saviour, my friend? It is a critical point for every human being today. Have you received Him or are you a Christ-rejector? The world is full of Christ-rejectors. I trust no-one here is a Christ-rejector. Receive Him into your heart! That is why the glad tidings are preached, that you should open the door of your heart and let the Saviour in. It is so simple: let the Saviour in, embrace Him as your own, make Him your own, confess His name, own Him as Lord. Do you know that small rhyme:
'Romans ten and nine
Is a favourite verse of mine'?
"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved". There is nothing complicated about the glad tidings. Messages in this world are often confusing - no sense in many of them - but there is a simplicity about the glad tidings. So He came into manhood, into a scene that was totally foreign to Him, coming from a realm that was free from sin, the love that we spoke of this afternoon existing between three divine Persons, not in the relation ship that we now know, but three divine Persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - living together eternally in perfect love, and yet the Word became flesh. I often think about what the Lord must have felt - a babe, born in the inn where was no room for them, He grew up, He preached in the synagogue where He was brought up, preached the glad tidings of the grace of God. That is what He did. If you read Luke 4 carefully you will find that He stops, in His preaching, in the quotation from Isaiah, at ''the acceptable year of the Lord". If you read Isaiah, you will find that it is followed by "and the day of vengeance of our God", chap 61: 2. Jesus, in all the grace of God, the vessel of divine grace, did not go on to that. It is a time of blessing, my friend; it is a time of the grace of God, a time of the favour of God, the world held provisionally in reconciliation, this awful world that we are speaking about, yet held provisionally in reconciliation, the tide of God's judgment stayed for the moment on account of one blessed Man who stood in the breach. You will remember that Moses stood between the dead and the living (see Num 16: 48). What a time this is, a time of God's favour, and God is urgent that you should accept this blessed One as your Saviour. Think of Him coming into the temple. John presents it early in his gospel: "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise", chap 2: 16. He saw the sin that existed and knew in Himself that He would have to bear the whole thing and shed His precious blood to accomplish the work of atonement.
Matthew and Luke tell us that He came into manhood as a babe. Oh, the wonder of that! Luke tells us He was "wrapped in swaddling-clothes", chap 2: 12. The One who owned the universe, owned heaven and earth, created them, yet there He was, "a babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and lying in a manger", confined, a helpless babe seemingly, and yet, as to His person, He was God. Oh, the grace of God that He came in in such a way! Mr Darby could write:
'We gaze upon Thy weakness -
The manger and the cross'. (Hymn 188)
Think of it, points of extreme weakness, "a babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes", a Man, a perfect Man, nailed, apparently helpless, to a cross. It appeared that way, absolutely helpless, and yet He was the Creator of the universe. That is the One, dear friend, who is presented to you tonight as a Saviour. He "did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God" (Phil 2: 65) because He was on an equality with God and He never ceased to be what He always was on account of what He became. But He was here as man. The first thing it says in Philippians 2 is that He took a bondman's form. Someone has said, that was excess. It would have been sufficient to have said that He took manhood's form, but He took a bondman's form. That is, He was here to serve. He was here to serve His God, to be faithful to His will, and He certainly was, and it cost Him His life. And He was here to serve His own. He could say that: "But I am in the midst of you as the one that serves", Luke 22: 27. What a service! What a sacrifice!
That leads me on to Corinthians. Paul is writing to Corinthian believers: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched". What volumes lie in that, dear friends! As I have said, the Owner of the heaven and the earth, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, how rich He was! Even as to this earth: "The earth is Jehovah's, and the fulness thereof", Ps 24: 1. So many scriptures we can quote! The "cattle upon a thousand hills" (Ps 50: 10) are His. Think of men squabbling over a few square miles of territory! It is happening all over the world: armed conflicts said to be in 93 countries of the world -wherever you like to mention, men squabbling over a few miles of earth, yet it does not belong to them. "The earth is Jehovah's, and the fulness thereof". It will be seen to be so in coming day when He will claim it for Himself. Every Lord's Day morning we do that: we claim the whole thing for Him. Mr Raven once said that, if the world knew what we were doing every Lord's Day morning, that we were holding it for Him and claiming it for Him, they would not tolerate it for an instant. The world is ready to treat the Lord's own in the very same way that they treated Him. Do not let us delude ourselves that man has changed, that the world has changed; they would treat the believer in the same way as they treated the believer's Lord. History has proved this in times of terrible persecution. And man is unchanged. Nevertheless, "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ". Oh what grace marked Him! It was seen in that woman we were speaking about in John 8. According to the law of Moses they were right; she should have been stoned to death, but He turned it round on them: "Let him that is without sin among you". Sometimes that is quoted as, 'Let him that is without sin cast the first stone'. His own blessed hand would have cast the first stone because He was without sin. How accurate Scripture is. John quotes the Lord as saying, 'Let him that is without sin among you first cast the stone at her'. The Lord puts it on them to cast the first stone. They "went out one by one beginning from the elder ones until the last". Then the Lord says, "Neither do I condemn thee". Some people like that part but do not like the rest. The Lord says, "Go, and sin no more".
I think that is a perfect illustration of what John writes in His first chapter: "full of grace and truth". When the Lord says, "Neither do I condemn thee" - that is grace; when He says, "Go, and sin no more", that is truth. Well, ''for your sakes". How that would affect the Corinthians! "For your sakes", not for His own sake. Paul says to the Corinthians, ''for your sakes". Dear friends, we might add, for our sakes He became poor, for a certain reason: "in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched". The glad tidings has an enriching effect. We have proved it this day in our gatherings, a richness and wealth amongst the saints that is divinely provided and sustained in the power of the Holy Spirit that nothing in this world can give. I would challenge the universe at this moment, if there is anything that the world can give which could come near the riches that are provided in the grace of God. There is nothing like it as the soul experiences it: ''that ye through his poverty might be enriched". But it has been secured for us at great cost. It cost Him His life.
In Revelation there is a change of scene. John was the one who, when the Lord was here in blood and flesh in manhood, leaned on His breast and lay in His bosom, very much loved by the Lord. John would think of that, but here he says, "And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead". No wonder! - ''the Son of man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle; his head and hair white like white wool, as snow; and his eyes as a flame of fire; and his feet like fine brass, as burning in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters; and having in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth; and his countenance as the sun shines in its power'' (vv 13-16). No wonder John fell at His feet as dead, the Lord appearing in judicial garb. That was in relation to professing Christendom as Revelation goes on to tell us, and the Lord pronounces His judgment on these seven assemblies, to each of them He says, "I know". He cannot be deceived. We cannot as individuals deceive Him and we cannot deceive Him collectively. So He appears in judicial garments. "And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead; and he laid his right hand upon me". What assurance! The same blessed Man, on whose breast he had leaned and in whose bosom he had lain, laid His right hand upon him. What a touch that would be! "And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not". No doubt John would be full of fear as he saw the Lord like this. "Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one". Then He reminds John - John would know it well - "and I became dead". What a thing that was that the Son of God went into death, entered the tomb for three days and three nights, not one pulsation of life Godward when the Son of man lay in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights and then was "raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father", Rom 6: 4. The Father loved Him so much that by His glory He raised His beloved Son from among the dead. He has exalted Him, given Him the highest place in glory.
So the Lord says, "Behold, I am living to the ages of ages". That, my friend, is absolute. It is unchangeable. Beyond the power of death, beyond the power of Satan, beyond every evil power, He is living to the ages of ages, and He has the keys of death and of hades. No-one dies but the Lord uses that key and He also has the keys of hades and He is in perfect control, as it says in Romans, over both dead and living, chap 14: 9. Wonderful thing to know there is a Man in the presence of God who is in control of the powers of good and of evil. There is an address of Mr Taylor's when he was a young man that you young people especially should read: "Christ in Control of the Powers of Good and Evil" (see Vol.1, p.256). So Satan can only go as far as God allows him. There is a Man in the presence of God in perfect control. Things seem to be - and they are publicly - going fast out of control down here. I think men in power know it, that things in this world are fast slipping out of control. The believer, my friend, and you, if you are one - and I trust all are - can rest your soul on the fact that there is a Man in heaven in the presence of God in perfect control with the keys of death and of hades. And tonight you can come to know Him as your Saviour and believing in Him, as Peter says, you will have remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2: 38). It is a wonderful thing to have the forgiveness of sins; it is a more wonderful thing to enjoy the forgiveness of your sins. I think there are many believers - I trust none here are among them - who know the forgiveness of their sins but are not in the enjoyment of it. To enjoy the forgiveness of your sins you need the gift of the Holy Spirit. Well, I trust we are all in that category tonight. May God bless His word for His Name's sake!
KIRKCALDY
8 May 1994
WORD IN MINISTRY MEETING
Eric Burr
Deuteronomy 34: 10; Joshua 1: 5
The end of Deuteronomy is a remarkable section of Scripture in relation to the last days of Moses, as the brethren will know. What it must have meant to a man to be told to go up the mountain and die is something that I suppose has been experienced by hardly anyone else. The simplicity and obedience in which Moses evidently did that is quite striking. God said to him: "Go up ... and die", Deut 32: 49,50. It has struck me before how that contrasts with Jesus who, as it were, came down from the mountain to die.
But it says, "And there arose no prophet since in Israel like Moses". That is interesting because Moses had been quite sure that God would raise up a prophet like him. He said earlier, "Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet ... like unto me", Deut 18: 15. That was perhaps a fairly bold thing to say, but that was Moses' view. I suppose Moses felt the necessities of the children of Israel with whom by this time he had had very long experience. He said, "Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet... like unto me", but God says, "And there arose no prophet ... like Moses”. It impresses me, beloved, at the present time with the thought that God does not deal in replacements. Other services are going to be needed and the people of Israel are going to need not only leading into the land, which was committed to Joshua, but from time to time other circumstances would arise and in no circumstance was a prophet like Moses raised up: men were raised up for the necessities of the time. This book and then the book of Judges - especially the book of Judges - is filled with men whom God raised up from time to time: Ehud and Gideon and Samson. They all had their own characteristics. God does not therefore deal in exact replacements of those who are no longer here. I wondered whether that was a word for us at the present time because in this city the Lord has taken two very much loved brothers and we might wonder - and we in this part of the city particularly wonder - what God will have in place of them. He does not deal in specific replacements. What He does, though, is to promise His own presence. I think that is quite affecting to us and it should reassure us that, if in one sense the Lord takes some from among us and there is a feeling of loss (and rightly), there is something that continues in whatever circumstances: "as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee". I think the Lord would say that to us. Whether we feel sufficiently deeply the way in which the Lord takes one and another from among us is perhaps a question, because we feel the obligation to continue, and we cannot dwell too long in a specific way on those that the Lord has taken from us. What they were amongst us is to be continued: I think that is important. As I say, God does not directly replace what He has had, but what He looks for is the continuation, in perhaps a distributed way, of what has been among us.
We think of ourselves here. We might also - and that in a wider way - think of our beloved brethren in Edinburgh and of the saints generally. The Lord has taken men whose service to the saints hardly needs comment, and they cannot be replaced. I do not flatter their memory by saying they cannot be replaced, because you would have to look for men who had for perhaps sixty years addicted themselves to the truth and to the ministry and had lived in days when there was a distinctive ministry amongst us and had absorbed that and extended it among the brethren in their own service. The possibilities of that are beginning to run out because the men who knew those days are no longer with us; to read things is not the same as being there. Nevertheless, what the Lord has had in men who have come through that history and have been serviceable to the saints in relation to that history and in the extension of what the Lord gave at that time, is to be maintained among us by those who have themselves learned the truth, not only by studying the ministry, but by studying the Scriptures. You will notice in the verse preceding that which I read in Deuteronomy 34 that God says, "And Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom". It is the spirit of that ministry which the Lord will have extended among us. We shall not get into that unless we submit ourselves both to study and to teaching, and if we do not get into it, another generation is going to grow up untaught. I think of the remarks that were made at Sunbury on Saturday as to different stages of history that are among us at the present time. There are those who, like the brothers to whom I refer whom the Lord has taken, have come through a very long history and who have, I trust, left something with us all, but there are others whose main part of the history does not begin there. it begins in a period of very great difficulty among the brethren. There are those among us now - brothers and sisters growing up who are now parents, the foundations of whose history lies in that period. And there are others - thank God there are others - whose history dates from after that time of sorrow. Very thankful we are that the Lord has maintained some after that period of sorrow with no roots in that history. The Lord is therefore serving us in carrying these things through, but carrying through all these stages: those who have had their roots in conflict and have found peace afterwards; and those who have not yet known war - and may the Lord preserve them from knowing it in the way that some of us have had to learn it! All these things subsist, and the Lord and the Spirit would use every opportunity to ensure that what has been here in another generation continues in the generation that is to follow. If I refer also to beloved brothers whom the Lord has taken from us here, will the spirit of "giving no manner of offence in anything" (2 Cor 6: 3) continue among us? Could that spirit be distributed among us? You remember that, earlier in the history God said to Moses, I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee, and I will put it on seventy others (see Num 11: 17). Think of that! - "giving no manner of offence in anything". Think of the word that we had at our beloved brother's burial as to a man of God. Is that growing? It is not exactly that one man of God will replace another man of God, but the characteristics of the man of God that have been seen in some will be seen in others as they commit themselves on the lines on which Paul was exhorting Timothy. God is not dealing in replacements but He is not going to lose anything in the testimony as a result of taking one and another to Himself. The call, therefore, is to see what characteristics were developed in those that the Lord has taken and consider that they might be continued, and are to be continued, in our own time.
We can think of our other beloved brother who was with us here and who spoke often to us. I think one could say that whatever he said left something of the spirit in what he had said. Is his readiness still here? On Tuesday nights is that readiness here? If our brother whom the Lord has most recently taken had said, 'Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet ... like unto me who will be ready to speak', is it then going to be said, no such prophet arose? God is looking for the continuation of characteristics. Think of our beloved brother's committal to what was in this city! Think of remarks which I quoted publicly only because I was asked to do so that his widow said, 'He could not have
lived if he could not have got to his meetings'. Is that spirit now to be lost? It is not that someone else is going to say, 'I will be like that', but is that character going to be here? Moses said, someone like me, but God says, No, there is nobody like you, but I will have these characteristics continued; I have raised up Joshua and I will have My purpose for My people completed; he will cause them to inherit the land.
I refer to these things, beloved, because I am sure we all, both locally and in a wider way, feel the loss from what the Lord has done in His own actions as to which we can say nothing. As to that, I just refer to my conversation on Lord's Day with a staff nurse in the hospital in relation to our sister who was in there. She said to me, 'She will either go to a better place or to a nursing home'. I said, 'It would be a great mercy from God if she goes to a better place'. And the nurse said, 'But we cannot dictate to Him'. Think of that! We cannot dictate to Him. Moses almost tried to dictate to God that there should be someone else like him, but God says, 'No'. I suppose the fulfilment of what Moses had looked for waited for Christ. The desire that there might in a certain way just be a simple, straightforward replacement is not God's mind. God will seek to ensure that nothing that has been in those who have had their part in the testimony whom He has taken to Himself is lost. I just add that that applies just as much to sisters as it does to brothers. It applies to all the Lord's people, that He will have nothing lost among them by what He takes to be with Christ.
I say these things just to encourage us to be going on. God said to Joshua, "As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee". God would say that to us still: as I was with you when so-and-so was among you, going back further when so-and-so else was among you, when you had distinctive ministry, when all these things were amongst you, as I was with you then, so will I be with you still.
I trust the Lord will encourage us, not only to be going on, but ourselves making sure that nothing is lost among us by what the Lord does on His own part.
LONDON
19 April 1994